Description:In July 1907 J. H. Menzies received a letter from a man named Wynne regarding Cotes Farm in Eccleshall. There were problems with hay at the farm which Wynne’s letter warns Menzies about. He writes ’we have only managed to carry 3 loads of hay this week, & that was not dry’. Wynne goes on to add that the other hay ‘will be spoilt’, remarking that it had ‘rained most part of the day here’.
Wynne’s letter also contains an account of agricultural provisions and work at the farm for July 1907. On 9th July he records ‘Oats 5 bags to Stables’. On 19th July an entry reads ‘Man 2 horses taking flowers to N – show’. On 20th July a man and two horses were sent ‘fetching flowers from show’. On 27th July Wynne reports ‘Load of clover to Stables’. Men and horses also carted wood ‘for gardens’ and moved pheasants, and horses and men were sent to Trentham.
An additional small card postmarked Eccleshall survives in the Sutherland Papers which also refers to crops at Cotes Farm. A man named Mr. Pye wrote from Cotes on September 25th 1907 to inform Menzies that the ‘wheat’ at the farm had been ‘carried’ on ‘Monday last’. Pye writes ‘the sooner it is thrashed the better as it is in no form to stand much rain, if it should rain I will put some straw on it’.